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4531
qualitative
journal
Ring, Kenneth and Cooper, Sharon, "Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind: A Study of Apparent Eyeless Vision," Journal of Near-Death Studies 16(2) (Winter 1997): 101-147, Vicki Umipeg, Case 4
Journal of Near-Death Studies Vol. 16 No. 2 pp. 101-147, 1997
1962
1997
12
F
Vicki Umipeg experienced her first near-death experience at age 12 as a result of appendicitis and peritonitis. Born extremely premature at only 22 weeks gestation and weighing just three pounds (dropping to one pound, 14 ounces), Vicki suffered complete blindness from retrolental fibroplasia due to excess oxygen in her incubator. She has never had any visual experience, cannot perceive light or shadows, and does not understand the concept of light.
During her life-threatening illness from appendicitis and peritonitis at age 12, Vicki had a near-death experience that would profoundly impact her life. While the specific details of this first experience are noted to be less detailed and vivid than her second NDE ten years later, it shared the same overall form and structure. She experienced separation from her physical body and encountered transcendent realms despite her complete blindness from birth. The experience was significant enough that when she had her second NDE at age 22, she recognized similar elements and even encountered the same being she identified as Jesus. This first experience introduced her to a form of perception entirely foreign to her everyday life - something she would later struggle to describe as either "seeing" or a complex form of knowing that transcended her normal sensory limitations. As someone who had never experienced vision in any form, this NDE at age 12 represented her first encounter with what sighted people might call visual perception, though she would later clarify that it was both seeing and knowing simultaneously, a form of awareness that exceeded normal sensory experience.
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Hospital
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Suggestive Evidence
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Life-threatening appendicitis and peritonitis requiring emergency medical treatment
Blind from birth experiencing unprecedented form of perception, though specific details of first NDE not fully described
written_account
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Complete blindness from birth, no light perception
7/23/2025
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